Pavel Brendl: A Man Among Boys

By Brandon LeBourveau

October 25th, 2000

Well, as we all know Pavel Brendl did not make the New York Rangers thisseason and was sent back to Calgary of the WHL for another year in juniors.Despite his unwillingness to go back to juniors and play with kids, Brendlreported to the Hitmen anyway and he has been on fire since his return.

Brendl has 11 goals and 4 assists (15 points) in 6 games, which leadsthe Hitmen in scoring. He is currently 4th in the WHL in goals, but if heplayed in every game like the 3 players ahead of him (Konstanin Panov with12, Layne Ulmer with 19, and Mike Comrie with 21), he would be the leadingscorer if he kept up this pace. The biggest highlight of his season so farprobably came a couple nights ago when he scorched Jamie Lundmark’s Moose JawWarriors for 4 goals in the 3rd period to help the Hitmen to a 5-2 victory.(However, Lundmark did not play in that game and has still not played a gamewith the Warriors yet as he is sitting home waiting to be traded.) Eventhough Brendl is starting off great with the Hitmen, lots of people(including myself) are wondering if it was the right decision to send himback to juniors..

I don’t know how much you can learn from dominating a league mostly madeup of kids 2-3 years younger than you night in and night out. I still believethe Rangers made the wrong choice. They should have kept Brendl on the teamand let him get 3rd or 4th line ice time. Look what happened with JoeThornton in his rookie season. He spent the whole season on either the 3rd or4th line, and got to learn the ropes of the NHL. Thornton has now slowlydeveloped into on of the premier up and coming all-stars in the game. Thesame thing should have been done with Brendl. Let him learn the NHL slowlyand let him develop at his own pace. We could have had a very good player onour hands a lot sooner, but now we have to sit around and wait another yearto see this guy on Broadway..